career opportunities
long story short...my last position was working on a gov't contract thru my company. gov't decided to in-source those positions. being the newbie to the team, another guy and i were left out. we were moved to another gov't contract(same building, area, etc..). so now i'm reading books so i can properly function in the new position as they use java but they use the javaserver faces and hibernate technologies, which i have not used personally. it'll be about a 90 day transition and by the end of the year, should be all ours (me and the other guy). this position will definitely be 10x more challenging than what i was on. so here's hoping i can live up to the challenge.
guess who’s back?
it's been a minute since i've posted anything but i'm back. the last couple months have been interesting and have given me a bunch of moments to remember. i've met new people and then had to let them go because they were crazy. i've dated with some success and some failures but at least i'm out there giving it a go. summer is in full steam and i'm trying to enjoy myself.
the lakers won the championship (yay!). one of my recreational basketball teams won a league championship (yay!). my kickball team won the league championship (yay!). and i'm currently getting my butt whooped by P90X. a group of friends and i are doing the whole 90 day challenge thing so i'm trying my best to do it too. if i can do it all the way through i'm guaranteed to be in much better physical form and shape than i've been in since high school. so we'll see how that goes.
other than that, i've gone to numerous events in and around Atlanta to occupy my time. and if i'm not out and about i'm probably watching one of my hundreds of tv shows. the list of shows i'm actively watching are The Tudors, Leverage, Boondocks, True Blood, Entourage, Hung, and Hard Times of RJ Berger. Treme recently finished its first season and it is an excellent show (David Simon from The Wire produces it). Mad Men starts up in July which might just be my favorite show overall.
i haven't been really playing a lot of games lately but i did have a nice 2 week binge on FIFA '10 because of the World Cup but now that USA is out i'm not watching nearly as much as i was. i also was playing modern warfare 2 a lot but my internet was down for about 10 days in early June so i kinda got pruned off it again.
that's about all i can think of at the moment, i'll be sure to post again soon.
nba playoffs
the nba playoffs are in full effect and it's been entertaining so far. unfortuntately my Hawks and Lakers are both tied 2-2 in their respective series'. hopefully they both will be able to pull it off. bobcats got swept, unfortunately...i was sort of rooting for them. i haven't watched nearly as many games as i'd like to since i've been out n about a lot lately but have been staying in the last few nights to watch some games.
i will be able to head to philips arena to see game 5 of Hawks/Bucks and that's always fun. Kobe, man up and don't lose to the Thunder (though i'm a big Durantula fan). anyway, here's hoping the playoffs are entertaining and LeBron heads into year 8 without a title.
turning lemons into lemonade
my car has been a money sink for me for way too long...i keep thinking that if i get it fixed maybe it'll go 6 months without having a serious issue. right now, i'm about 0/5 with that thought. so i'm looking to cut it loose, take the loss in stride, and find a new (used) car that will be dependable and not break the bank if any issues should arise. the caddy was awesome when it was running smoothly...too bad that was few and far between.
droid does
last september I lost my LG touch phone and had to use my old pos LG Chocolate so I quickly decided to go on to eBay and find a cheap phone that would be better. unfortunately, i didn't read too much into the phone i was buying (blackberry 8530 world edition) and it sucks terribly 80% of the time. it has like no memory so anytime i use any decent app, i have to like restart the phone to clear out memory or i'll start missing calls, etc...i had enough of that crap so i bought the new Motorola Droid phone. i'm sure it'll be infinitely better and i'll definitely tinker around with developing on it. i'll have more on that after i receive it tomorrow.
march madness
the job is going pretty well so i'm happy. the commute is about 40 minutes there and 45 to an hour in the afternoon so i think i'm going to be moving at the end of March. i'll be inside the perimeter for once so it should be a nice change to be close to all the hot spots for once. i'm finally in a traditional developer position instead of the more IT/business intelligence positions i held before so i'm excited at the opportunity.
in other news, march madness is on the way and my tar heels will not be dancing unless they win the conference tourny. fat chance. we won last year so i'll be okay.
cool runnings
So I recently accepted an offer to take a job as a Java developer. I'm really excited for the opportunity and it should be very interesting. My first two real jobs were in the business intelligence category so this is a new career path for me. In my last position, I also did some java development but it wasn't anything too formal and only for my internal group. Now I'll be do something real with it and it'll definitely be a new challenge i'm looking forward to. I accepted the offer last Tuesday and decided to take a celebratory vacation to Jamaica for a couple days. I definitely wasn't there long enough to enjoy everything so i'll be going back someday. New job starts Monday (and its a nice increase in wage if i do say so myself) so it should be good.
I got back yesterday and waited about an hour in the customs line because I ran to the line early and avoided a possible 2-3 hour wait. Jamaica is definitely fun and the people are nice and welcoming. I recommend it!
happy new year
2010 is already in gear and I still don't have a job but I'm fervently looking. My xmas was pretty good though, we ditched the normal xmas tradition and headed out to California to watch the Crimson Tide take down the McCoy-less Longhorns. All in all, it was a pretty good trip. I'll be heading over to NOLA next weekend for a friend's bday celebration so that should be fun.
Other than those little niblets of information, I'm trying to get back into this whole XNA thing that I'm always jumping in and out of. I'm still working on the poker related game and some other stuff that I worked in the past to get my feet wet. I'm also reading a number of books related to C#/.NET/ASP/Java/CSS/AJAX and a whole bunch of other things to pass the time, keep my skills up, and add new skills.
so i guess that's about it right now.
winter wonderland
wow it has seriously been a minute since i've made some sort of post. i'm doing okay for the most part. i've been having a lot of fun and enjoying a lot of gaming, tv shows, going out, football, basketball, and all sorts of other things.
i need to get back to coding again as i've really not done it at ALL lately. i think the first thing i may go into is for the DreamBuildPlay contest (www.dreambuildplay.com). Specifically, the Microsoft Old Spice Challenge seems to be up my alley so i'm thinking on that as we speak.
and last but not least i'm currently in the job market so we'll see how that goes in the coming weeks (months?).
side note: alabama is 13-0, sweet! depending on my job status, i will be goin to the BCS National Championship game on Jan. 7th at the Rose Bowl (Pasadena, CA).
Are you ready for some football?
Wow I haven't posted in forever...I kind of forgot I had the site. oh well. Anyways, it's been a decent summer. But I've spent so much cash I'm ready for the fall and everything it brings with it(new seasons of TV, NFL, College Fball, NBA) which will keep me occupied and help me save some cash.
Heading to Destin next week with a group of peeps so we'll see how that goes.
Hoping to go on a Ski Trip to Tahoe next year...this time I'm taking blues from day one.
So here's to a happy end of summer/beginning of fall!
